Why I do what I do

I've had my head to the grindstone the past few weeks, madly working away on a number of large wholesale orders for Galleries before we go on holidays.  It hasn't been the easiest of weeks- long hours, glazing problems with my one and only commercial glaze (the red glaze on my poppies has been crawling), re-firing and re-making in order to fill the large orders for my galleries.  Ceramics is such a labour-intensive and often frustrating process- pulling out 'almost perfect but not quite' pots from the kiln time and time again can really get to a person after a while. 
In between the wholesale orders, I've had some smaller orders from clients who came to me with special requests- a 13th birthday gift for a budding young artist, a custom order from a bride for her wedding party, a wedding gift for a repeat customer, and a special birthday gift for a daughter who is generally hard to buy for.  In the midst of the wholesale orders that I feel pretty bogged down about, I feel like the whole reason I do what I do and I make what I make is for these customers that come my way, tell me their story, and ask me to make something beautiful for them to give to someone special in their life.  What a huge honour it is to be able to use my hands every day to create something that someone out there will use everyday!